Berkeley City Council Votes To Put Impeachment of Bush On The Ballot

A video of the meeting is online at:
http://berkeley.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=321

A summary of the decision will be available online soon at:
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agendaindex.htm#current

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“If enough people on the grassroots level support the resolutions, then others will join,” said Nora Foster, who worked with Worthington’s office on the resolution and is a member of ImpeachPAC, (impeachPAC.org) an organization attempting to get local resolutions passed through cities and change the Congress nationally to one that would be friendly toward impeachment.

“The media has left important questions slip under the wire,” Foster said. “People need to understand how far (Bush and Cheney) have gone to abrogate people’s rights.”

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http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?archiveDate=04-25-06&storyID=23967
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/12277

Constitution Summer, a coalition of student activists from more than a dozen universities, believes that Congress’ reluctance to investigate the merits of impeachment justifies taking the question to the people. True to the roots of the Free Speech Movement that still informs the culture of Berkeley, the group feels it is simply exercising its constitutional right to redress of grievances under the First Amendment.

Geoffrey King, a Democrat and President of Constitution Summer, sees impeachment as a non-partisan concern. According to King, it is not a question of whether the President should be impeached, but why he hasn’t been. “President Bush has arrogated unto himself powers that in some cases went out of fashion in 1215, and in any event, in 1776. He has shown a wish and a willingness to corrupt our representative system of government by tracking the calls of and wiretapping Americans despite a federal statute that makes doing so a felony; by normalizing torture; and by revoking the right of Americans not to be disappeared and held indefinitely without charge or trial. These abuses fit perfectly with what the Framers intended the impeachment power to address. It is time to use it.”

Saba Sahouria, a Republican and Treasurer of Constitution Summer, added, “The President says we must give up essential liberty to defeat al Qaeda, and yet, we are inexplicably embroiled in an unnecessary war that diverted CIA agents, Special Forces commandos, money, and ground troops from crushing the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan in order to invade Iraq, which had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and which had no operational links to al Qaeda. By invading Iraq, the President has undermined our long-term security. There is no other way to describe the President’s actions but as a radical, extreme, and legally baseless power grab, because they make little sense in any other context.”

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http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/3703/1/32/